OAKS SUITED FOR SCOTLAND. 



191 



shocks of time, and exist at the present day in a 

 tolerably entire state, afford ocular demonstration, 

 that oak was extensively used by our ancestors for 



which belonged, as is said, to IMoray the Regent, and bro- 

 ther of Queen Mary, and several others that were saved from 

 the wreck of the Cathedral of Elgin, form part of the furni- 

 ture of this hall. The last serve to indicate, that the tim- 

 ber-work of that building, of which the naked walls now 

 alone remain, was also oak. 



The following curious account, taken from the Caledonian 

 Mercury of September 7- 1829, is, if possible, a still better il- 

 lustration. " Among the remarkable circumstances brought 

 to light by the late flood," (namely, that of the 3d of the 

 month), " is the discovery of a wooden bridge, over the River 

 Dee, a little above Ballater, the existence of which must be 

 referred to a very remote period of antiquity, as neither re- 

 cord nor tradition make any mention of such a structure. It 

 had stood about half a mile above the recently destroyed bridge 

 of Ballater, to the west of the hill of Craigendarroch, and was 

 laid bare by the late flood striking against the bank at the bot- 

 tom of that hill. The bridge had been composed of huge 

 oaken logs, with cross beams mortised into piles of the same 

 material, standing a considerable height above the bed of the 

 river, the tops of the piles, which are now worn away, being 

 destined probably to support the path-way of the bridge, — as 

 there were neither carts nor carriages in " thae " days. The 

 oak framing, which is as fresh as the day it was laid down, is 

 composed of trees above eighteen inches square." 



